ECW: Anarchy Rulz!

More screens, more movies, and our thoughts on the fourth iteration of the Warzone engine.

By IGN Staff

Should I? Shouldn't I?

Hell with it. I suppose I must open things up with a line from Christopher Zimmerman, because it is in fact that good - I AM BIASED.

Sorrow to the mutant populace of the bingo hall (tm Scott Keith), for their promotion is finally about to breathe its last, and its videogame is saddled with an engine now four games old (tied with Tomb Raider), still no better than it ever was, which is to say not that good. ECW Anarchy Rulz is all the game its predecessors were and very little else so far, at 90% completion. A miracle is always possible, but barring that, this game looks like it'll be the weak Hardcore Revolution redux that we've been expecting.

Which is honestly too bad, because there's as much potential in ECW to create a quality game as there is in the real-life promotion to become a quality entertainment. There are wrestlers I really dig in this game: Masato Tanaka is one of the star additions, mixing very well with earlier standouts like Yoshihiro Tajiri and Super Crazy. Along with the many holdovers from Warzone, there are some cool new move animations - Tajiri has a great animation for his vicious seated kicks to the face. But those are the standouts, and so much of the rest of the lineup is terribly weak in comparison. Mike Awesome is gone, as is Raven, leaving the same mix of newbies and has-beens that fill up the TNN show. Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer, and the Sandman may be a draw to some, but not to me, and though I fear it may be too late, someone needs to tell Acclaim that having Dusty Rhodes in their game (complete with his grotesquely quiescent elbowdrop) is definitely not a selling point. It's also worth noting that if Dusty can do a gutwrench powerbomb in reality, I'll eat my favorite hat.

The computer-controlled Dusty can pull off that powerbomb, anyway - I'm betting you or I couldn't without an awful lot of practice. The Warzone control system remains as clumsy and counterintuitive as ever, meaning you'll pull off more boring armdrags than Ricky Steamboat when he's dogging it. The new game modes don't do much to liven up the action, either. Some of them are downright odd additions, too - table matches I can understand, but why dumpster matches, or brimstone (read Inferno) matches? Those are WWF gimmicks, aren't they? Trivia aside, they aren't all that interesting. The brimstone match is basically a two-man Royal Rumble with some ugly "fire" textures on the floor outside the ring - toss your opponent out and he disappears, end of match. The table match is about as disappointing. If you can manipulate the controls with sufficient dexterity to put your opponent through a table, which is no mean feat, you're rewarded by a dull table-breaking animation and an uninspiring sound effect. It just doesn't feel as special as the real thing does...

None of the sound effects manage to be as interesting as listening to a real wrestling show. There's an odd contrast between excessively weak effects and some terribly overblown ones. The purportedly Philadelphian crowd is downright sedate most of the time, while moves are accented by ridiculous crunching and "bone-breaking" noises. The overall atmosphere is a bit better than Hardcore Revolution's, though. A few of the wrestler intros have some nice flavor to them, like Super Crazy's acrobatic entrance. Most of the wrestlers look good, too, insofar as they were much to look at to begin with (when it comes to creating a polygonal Dusty, less is more, I think).

Those are drops in a very small bucket, though. Traditionally, a game preview is supposed to be of an optimistic character, but exceptions must arise every so often, and this is one of them. Acclaim once claimed that Anarchy Rulz would be a substantial improvement on its predecessors. However, I can't see what they've done to fix the Warzone engine, improve on its many visual flaws, or add something of real value to the game. There are still the same problems with collision detection, move execution, and dealing with the cheap artificial intelligence. After four games, you still can't give a created wrestler his own custom move set, a feature that's been around in wrestling games since the 16-bit Fire Pros. There is just so little to recommend this over what games like Smackdown 2 and No Mercy - or for the import-savvy, Fire Pro G, which you can have for less than $40 these days - and so much more that the competition has to offer. I can't say this is the final word on ECW Anarchy Rulz, but I have a sinking feeling that that final word won't be all that different.

-- David Smith.

While the first ECW game on PlayStation was a mere makeover of Acclaim's own WWF Attitude, the company promises to use the extreme ECW license to the fullest with the original's sequel, ECW Anarchy Rulz.

Here's a rundown of the game's features list:

Over 60 of the most hardcore wrestlers ever including new additions "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, The Sandman, and Masato Tanaka!

Never-before seen matches such as Street Fight, Table Match, and the explosive Inferno Match!

All new control mechanics for easy pick-up-and-play excitement!

Over 25 GAME MODES that will bust you wide open including: the first ever Dumpster Match, Lion's Den, Hate Match, Team Rumble, and the ECW fan favorite-The Barbed-Wire Match!

Acclaim's Ground-breaking Create Your Own Pay-Per-View and Create-A-Wrestler have been greatly enhanced for even deeper customization.

Attempt to get through a new and improved Career Mode where you can a stable of rival enemies.

More audio from wrestlers, play-by-play and color commentary than any other wrestling game ever!

ECW Anarchy Rulz is currently slated for an August 2000 release on PlayStation. IGNPSX will have more information on this game, including hands-on impressions, at next week's E3 in Los Angeles, California. We'll let you know at that time whether or not this game really does live up to Acclaim's promises.